Iphone's coming to India!!!

I know its been forever since i posted. Its been a while since i posted on Tech news. So here we go.

THE IPHONE IS COMING TO INDIA!!

"Its already here", you say. You see it in every second Sardar's hand and every rich mohawk flaunting jock in delhi. Well now we are talking officially. That means an original Iphone which wont have to be unlocked to be used. One which basically comes without a warranty because it has been unlocked. There is a way around that though. This is ofcourse if you haven't "bricked"(rendered completely useless, a very expensive paperweight) your iphone. All you need to do is reset everything which means lock the phone and then get it fixed.

AAh.. i always seem to digress from the topic. So around 2 weeks ago, i received some bad news. That vodafone won the bid to sell the iphone in india. As we all know, Apple has been maintaining an exclusivity when it comes to providers. Only one provider per country kinda deals. I was kinda pissed because, i realised that i shall be forced to change numbers in order to buy an iphone. I know number portability is not going to kick in by the year end, so i was resigned to my fate. But then last week a rumour surfaced that Airtel will also be selling the iphone in india. My first reaction was how was that possible. Apple has been known for innovation and maintaining exclusivity to the core. Heck they took on the music industry when it came to revenue sharing over itunes.

But as it turns out, the rumours are true. In a chain deal with Singtel, apple seems to be moving out of the exclusivity deals and starting what is most likely going to be "PRICE WARS" in growth markets like india, phillipines and australia. Singtel has a stake in Bharti so through them they plan to sell the iphone in india. Of course this means that the iphone shall be competitively priced when released, which in turn is good news for guys like me. Gonna max out my credit card on the iphone.

Another piece of the puzzle is that fact that a 3G phone is also rumoured in the works. India rite now works on a 2.5G network. Which means that the speeds esp for data is quite pathetic. 3G offers a massive upgrade. The important point here is this. India should be upgrading to 3G by next year so should we hold on and wait for both the 3G iphone and 3G network?

Watch this space. Coz i am following this quite closely.

To Udhampur and Back!!!

Let's start with a little background info.... My dad's in the Indian Army... He is posted to Udhampur, which is close to Jammu. I have been to jammu once, when i was heading to Awantipore, which is closer to Srinagar... Jammu is well the 2nd last railway station on that line and Udhampur is the last. The track ends at Udhampur. Most ppl get off the train at jammu coz its more connected than udhampur.

So inspite of my parents moving to udhampur in 2006 Nov i failed to visit my house there since then. My parents keep "surprising" me with visits at delhi. Mostly on weekends..! Anyhoo, i finally decided to bite the bullet and head home for holi weekend. I knew i would survive mainly coz my brother Kris was there, not to mention my cousin sisters and aunt from bangalore. To top things off Mekhala also decided to tag along. So i knew i could keep the heat off me for most of the weekend...

The trip started quite ominously, My phone decided to screw with me... It conked off at the station. To add to the screwups, the dude who booked the tickets, smartie pants, put mekhala down as male.... oh and he booked us till jammu instead of udhampur. But i said, screw it, lets do it (sorry richard) and we decided to speak to the tt when the time came. The train was quite crowded, not to mentioned overbooked. TT in his hurry dint notice the 2 males listed on the ticket and signed off on it. He told me to meet him before jammu to extend the ticket and i was all happy that we were not gonna get screwed over.

Morning came and i was informed by the other passengers that the TT had come and gone twice.. :) Sleepy sleeperson that i am, i dint know!! I went and found him. He decided to make me his BEST FRIEND!! He kept talking and talking and talking and ... u get the picture. His motive was to get his son a job in gurgaon, i was like dude i cannot do anything for u. Finally i convinced him and he started saying stuff abt the fares.... kept saying itna lagega blah blah!! i was like dude make up ur goddamn mind... finally he said we can settle at 200 and i was like phew finally.... but he asked to see the ticket... OH i missed out on the main point here.... First thing he asked me... Is she your wife?? (i wanted to laugh so loud, dunno how i controlled myself) anyhoo.. so he finally started making the ticket and lo and behold he noticed we are 2 males.. I dint know what to say, i told him the truth that even i realised it very late... so please to help us out... then he said that i am doing u a big favor and the usual crap that comes along with that.... Finally he made the ticket and i literally ran back to my compartment...

Train was damn late and by the time we got there it was way past lunchtime. Adding to the misery.. flat tyre on the way and overheated tyre rim... when i say overheated... i mean smoking hot... got home excited to see everybody but guess what my dad wants to go for golf "RIGHT NOW". Oh well, Tiger quickly bathed and went to whoop some a$$... Needless to say overconfidence was not reqd and i got my a$$ whooped by both dad and bro... Anyhoo.. got back chilled out and pigged on some awesome chinese food. Then came the best part of the evening.. We all sat and sang songs and danced and stuff. It was awesome... my cousins well they can both dance and sing... both of them got shakira's moves down... finally ended the day with scrabble... Crashed finally very peacefully in the wee hours of the morning...

HOLI HAI!!! Awoke to the annoying cries of get ready to play holi and all.. and i was like.. Get ready??? Played a lil holi.. had a decent enough time.. pigged out on trout.. mmmmmm.... that evening my cousins and aunt left for delhi and then to blore... so that nite we tried to watch a movie.. parents passed out so movie cut short... Brother in the mean time gets hooked on to the Aatif song from Race.... He ain't no Bono so it was painful.. As mekhala tried to sleep she was awakened by the screeching cat that is krishna... and we both did a "halla bol" on his a$$ and yanked away my ipod to lessen the pain...

Woke up next morning all gung ho for golf... shoulder was killing me but i decided to wing it... Also found my long lost ferrari cap... the one which schumi wore during the press conference after the race he had just won... Played well this time... was on the verge of whooping Krishna's a$$ unfortunately.. a few mishits here and there ruined my chances... halved the game (that's draw for the uninitiated) yea krishna, if u reading this.. we halved u dint win!!

We left that evening and by god was the train crowded... I mean there were ppl sleeping/standing/sitting everywhere... dint sleep much.. but was glad to get home in the morning... not that i missed delhi.. but whatever... good to be back...

I can understand if u skipped thru the whole thing and are reading this bit.... it's way too long... But i was in a mood (not to work) so ... deal with it.. :D

Snaps of the trip at picasaweb.google.com/neomenon

Feel free to laugh at my snap!!

W00T!!

Amazing...

This is one of my favorite bands..... Collective Soul... Check out the original song and see how amazing these guys are... The acoustic here is killer too!!!





Sure the singer is making weird faces while singing.. that doesnt take away from the fact that the band ROCKS!!

Check out their latest album Afterwords. Fav songs on the album are Georgia Girl & Adored

Updated: Music i am listening to

Sorry for the long periods of silence and inactivity.... Been crazy busy... Went home to Udhampur for the first time.... next post will be abt the trip! But here's the top music on my charts... eesh... sounds really crap... here's the muzik i have on repeat these days...

1. John Mayer - Say (from the movie The Bucket List)
2. Racoon - Love You More (not the armin van buuren version, the original)
3. Racoon - Close Your Eyes
4. Boyceavenue - Lovestoned ( search for this in youtube and prepare to be amazed... also check out all the other videos by boyceavenue)
5. Onerepublic - Apologize ( am sure u have all heard this)
6. Goldspot - Friday (this one's not coming of this list anytime soon)

Peace!

Music I'm Listening To....

This idea is not mine but is "borrowed" from a dear friend of mine... His blog is listed to the right... Ultraswamy...

I shall try and update this from week to week.... I would request readers (that's u) to leave comments listing what they are listening to... Comments can be limited to 2 songs.. i however shall list 5-10 tracks.... These are the seven songs on the top of my latest playlist on my ipod touch (hehe had to throw that in)

1) Goldspot - Friday (check it out on youtube, also see the related links)

2) Them Clones - Through Another Night (Delhi Band, Awesome, also my ringtone)

3) Dream Out Loud - It's Raining Now (Again an Indian band, catch them from time to time on VH1)

4)Cake - Short Skirt Long Jacket (intro music to "chuck" Tv show i like, also kickass lyrics)

5) Needtobreathe - More Time (This Tracks on the P.S. I Love You soundtrack, its addictive)

6) Ryan Star - Last Train Home ( This one's again on the same soundtrack, sung by one of te finalists on ROCKSTAR: SUPERNOVA, check out his tracks on youtube, he oughta have won!!)

7) Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova - Falling Slowly (This song won the oscar for best song, from the movie ONCE)

Yea, i guess that it for now.... Mor often than not, i listen to these on the way to and from work....

PEACE!!